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alexblackreads 's review for:
206 Bones
by Kathy Reichs
This is my first introduction to the Temperance Brennan books, and I think this was a particularly bad place to start. However, it also left me with no desire to ever read Kathy Reichs again so this will probably be my only experience with these books. But my thoughts are definitely going to be skewed by this being my first book in the series, despite it being book 12.
First, it was incredibly confusing. Most procedural cop thriller series can be read out of order just fine. Authors generally do a quick summary at the beginning of the major players, family situations, romances, etc in case you're starting here. This book had that a little, but not right at the beginning and it only gave background information on Brennan and Ryan, the two main players. I had no idea who the other people in the lab were, and it was incredibly relevant to this story in particular. By the end of the book, there were at least a half dozen people who I knew by name alone and couldn't give you any additional information. And they weren't meant to be minor characters, I don't think.
And then the plot. It took me until about halfway through the book to realize what the plot was. It was a mystery within the lab itself instead of a specific case (there were in fact several different cases involved). I think that made this a particularly bad place to start in the series since it wasn't a typical case, although of course I can't speak for what the other books are like. The cases involved were pretty basic and Brennan didn't actually do much work in solving any of them. The main lab mystery took over her story, but it was so obvious. Like painfully obvious. One character was bad. Everyone hated them. They were continuously annoying and mean. They were described as evil. Plot twist, they were the villain. What a shock.
I also really couldn't stand the writing style. She included so much unnecessary information, either in pages of narration or paragraphs and paragraphs of dialogue. The worst was on page 99 when I seriously considered dnfing the book (and probably should have). Brennan says the town name reminds her of Mohawks, monks, and monastery cheese. Then proceeds to go on about those topics for two and a half pages despite it literally having no relevance to the story. It happened all the time. Random information on Chicago Transit Authority, the entire backstory of Brennan's exhusband's extended family, long explanations of technical forensics information that was pretty hard to follow as someone who knows nothing. When she included stuff like the cheeks being wide and that indicating a certain race, that was cool. When she wrote three long paragraphs about how the sternum was formed, not so much. I started skimming about a hundred pages in because it was intolerable.
There was also just so much unnecessary stuff, even when it wasn't in paragraphs of random information. When Ryan was driving, it would say what streets he turned on. There were long pages about Brennan getting food poisoning even though it contributed nothing to the story. At one point she randomly went to North Carolina to hang out with her daughter and the whole thing was vaguely described in summary. I was honestly just kind of lost. I didn't understand why she was including so much extraneous stuff.
Brennan was super annoying. I understand why they changed her character in the tv show. I could hardly stand her narration in the book when I was quickly skimming. She would whine and whine about how she'd go home to an empty house and how Ryan (her on again, off again, on again, off again, on again, ad infinitum boyfriend) didn't care about her anymore, but then people would ask her to hang out or offer her rides and she'd refuse and insult them. At one point she asked Ryan to hang out and he said he couldn't because he was picking up his daughter in the morning, who he was estranged from and had a heroin addiction. He didn't want to risk being late. Brennan said she understood, and then in narration went on about how she didn't understand and felt abandoned by him. That is one of the most understandable rejections I've ever seen. And those are just two examples, but that was what she was like for the entire book.
The ending was the trope where after it's all over, Brennan and Ryan sit down and explain what happened to each other/the reader, which was really annoying. I much prefer seeing the drama play out than being told about it after the fact. Just in general, it seemed like most of this book was pretty big on telling over showing.
And I wanted to add that yes, I watched the Bones tv show and enjoyed it. This book was very different in terms of characters and story (Booth is Andrew Ryan in the book and they're from Canada, Brennan has an exhusband and an adult daughter, and there are a million other differences). But the differences didn't bother me because I didn't expect them to be at all similar. This isn't a one star review because I was expecting it to be like Bones the show. This was a one star because I found it thoroughly unpleasant.
Honestly, I was just so confused for this whole book. Confused and bored. I'm not too picky with cop thrillers most of the time. I don't care if they're amazing. I just want them to be entertaining for a couple of hours. This was negative entertainment, if that's possible. Perhaps other books in the series are better, but I won't be finding out. This was a weird one because it was laboratory mystery instead of specific case mystery, but even then, the overall writing style and characters were just unpleasant. I wouldn't say don't pick up this series if you're looking to give it a try, but definitely don't start with this book.
First, it was incredibly confusing. Most procedural cop thriller series can be read out of order just fine. Authors generally do a quick summary at the beginning of the major players, family situations, romances, etc in case you're starting here. This book had that a little, but not right at the beginning and it only gave background information on Brennan and Ryan, the two main players. I had no idea who the other people in the lab were, and it was incredibly relevant to this story in particular. By the end of the book, there were at least a half dozen people who I knew by name alone and couldn't give you any additional information. And they weren't meant to be minor characters, I don't think.
And then the plot. It took me until about halfway through the book to realize what the plot was. It was a mystery within the lab itself instead of a specific case (there were in fact several different cases involved). I think that made this a particularly bad place to start in the series since it wasn't a typical case, although of course I can't speak for what the other books are like. The cases involved were pretty basic and Brennan didn't actually do much work in solving any of them. The main lab mystery took over her story, but it was so obvious. Like painfully obvious. One character was bad. Everyone hated them. They were continuously annoying and mean. They were described as evil. Plot twist, they were the villain. What a shock.
I also really couldn't stand the writing style. She included so much unnecessary information, either in pages of narration or paragraphs and paragraphs of dialogue. The worst was on page 99 when I seriously considered dnfing the book (and probably should have). Brennan says the town name reminds her of Mohawks, monks, and monastery cheese. Then proceeds to go on about those topics for two and a half pages despite it literally having no relevance to the story. It happened all the time. Random information on Chicago Transit Authority, the entire backstory of Brennan's exhusband's extended family, long explanations of technical forensics information that was pretty hard to follow as someone who knows nothing. When she included stuff like the cheeks being wide and that indicating a certain race, that was cool. When she wrote three long paragraphs about how the sternum was formed, not so much. I started skimming about a hundred pages in because it was intolerable.
There was also just so much unnecessary stuff, even when it wasn't in paragraphs of random information. When Ryan was driving, it would say what streets he turned on. There were long pages about Brennan getting food poisoning even though it contributed nothing to the story. At one point she randomly went to North Carolina to hang out with her daughter and the whole thing was vaguely described in summary. I was honestly just kind of lost. I didn't understand why she was including so much extraneous stuff.
Brennan was super annoying. I understand why they changed her character in the tv show. I could hardly stand her narration in the book when I was quickly skimming. She would whine and whine about how she'd go home to an empty house and how Ryan (her on again, off again, on again, off again, on again, ad infinitum boyfriend) didn't care about her anymore, but then people would ask her to hang out or offer her rides and she'd refuse and insult them. At one point she asked Ryan to hang out and he said he couldn't because he was picking up his daughter in the morning, who he was estranged from and had a heroin addiction. He didn't want to risk being late. Brennan said she understood, and then in narration went on about how she didn't understand and felt abandoned by him. That is one of the most understandable rejections I've ever seen. And those are just two examples, but that was what she was like for the entire book.
The ending was the trope where after it's all over, Brennan and Ryan sit down and explain what happened to each other/the reader, which was really annoying. I much prefer seeing the drama play out than being told about it after the fact. Just in general, it seemed like most of this book was pretty big on telling over showing.
And I wanted to add that yes, I watched the Bones tv show and enjoyed it. This book was very different in terms of characters and story (Booth is Andrew Ryan in the book and they're from Canada, Brennan has an exhusband and an adult daughter, and there are a million other differences). But the differences didn't bother me because I didn't expect them to be at all similar. This isn't a one star review because I was expecting it to be like Bones the show. This was a one star because I found it thoroughly unpleasant.
Honestly, I was just so confused for this whole book. Confused and bored. I'm not too picky with cop thrillers most of the time. I don't care if they're amazing. I just want them to be entertaining for a couple of hours. This was negative entertainment, if that's possible. Perhaps other books in the series are better, but I won't be finding out. This was a weird one because it was laboratory mystery instead of specific case mystery, but even then, the overall writing style and characters were just unpleasant. I wouldn't say don't pick up this series if you're looking to give it a try, but definitely don't start with this book.